Relatives of 29-year-old Sumera and her five-year-old daughter Ahera, who were killed during the shooting of Kannada film Ranam at Mahadeva Kodigehalli village, staged a protest in front of the Bagalur police station on Friday, demanding immediate arrest of those responsible for the fatal blast.
“It has been three days since the incident and the police are yet to make any arrests. The film crew had taken neither permission for the shooting nor any precautionary measures. This led to the loss of two lives,” said Tabrez Khan, Sumera’s husband.
‘Negligence’
Munawwar Khan, a relative of the victims, said it was a case of clear negligence on part of the film crew, but so far, no one from the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce had offered any consolation to the family.
The protesters demanded that the police speed up the investigation and said they would continue to protest till arrests were made. However, senior police officers spoke to the protesters and convinced them to end the agitation. They assured them that the probe was on and that arrests would be made soon.
Meanwhile, Zainab, 8, who sustained multiple injuries in the accident, is recovering at a private hospital.
Ranam is being produced by Kanakapura Srinivas and stars Chiranjeevi Sarja and Chetan. The film crew was shooting a car explosion scene at the Bengaluru Aerospace Park SEZ, Bagalur, on the city’s outskirts on Friday evening. Mr. Tabrez, along with his family, was heading to Soolibele to a relative’s house in a car when he noticed the road blocked because of the shoot.
The family members got down to watch the action. Sumera, Ahera, and Zainab stood behind a film mobile van, parked near the spot where the car was set to explode. Multiple compressor cannons had been placed under an SUV. The cannons, when fired, were to propel the car into the air. However, when they were fired, one of the cannons — a 3.5-ft metallic cylinder — flew across the road with high velocity and hit the bystanders, killing Ahera and Sumera. Residents of a nearby village claimed that members of the film unit, instead of attending to the victims, fled from the scene, abandoning everything in a matter of minutes. It was the villagers from Mahadeva Kodigehalli who helped shift the injured Zainab to a hospital.
Based on the complaint filed by Mr. Tabrez, the Bagalur police have registered an FIR against Shrinivas R., the producer, R.S. Production, director Samudram V., production manager Kiran, stunt manager Vijayan and his technical team, charging them under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and Section 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) of the IPC and under various sections of the Explosive Substances Act, 1908.
Special team formed
Kala Krishnaswamy, DCP (North-East) said a special team has been formed to track down the accused, who are on the run. “We have some clues that they might have fled to Hyderabad and Chennai. Efforts are on to track them down,” she said.